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We're apparently behind the curve on this one, but it
turns out that Apple does indeed have its own digital rights
management (DRM) technology and it's known as "Fairplay."
How it works with the new online music download service is
like this ...

According to writer Arik Hesseldahl at Forbes.com,
Apple has been developing Fairplay very quietly over the
past year, probably so people like your editor would crucify
Microsoft for mucking about in the same digital rights swamp
while they got it right, or tried to. At least Apple seems
to have been motivated by a principle other than "screw the
consumer," for which we should all be very thankful.
Basically, Fairplay allows you to do "things that generally
you're already allowed to do with CDs," like make copies for
backup purposes.

Hesseldahl describes the other rules of Fairplay as
follows:

"You're also allowed to create a custom mix
which, again, many used to do on cassette tapes, but in
recent years has been the domain of the CD-R disc and the
MP3 file. But with the new iTunes, you're limited to ten
copies of a single playlist before you have to change it.
That's Fairplay at work.

You're also allowed to listen to the music pretty much
wherever you want. That may be on an iPod--you're allowed
to put a song on an unlimited number of iPods--or on
other computers. In the case of computers, you're limited
to three, which should be enough for a computer at home,
a computer at work and the laptop you travel with. Again,
that is Fairplay at work."

This then is the basic formula that Apple sold to the
music companies. That, plus a cut of the action, of course.
There are some restrictions, but compared to what the Dark
Side is working with, this is a joy. There's nothing in the
above restrictions your editor couldn't live with, though
we're sure someone will be happy to point out a drawback we
hadn't thought of. That's as it should be, too, so speak
right up.